If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Soaked the queen in paint

I barely touched her with the marker and the whole front half of her body was soaked instantly. Last I saw her she was laying on the bottom of the hive surrounded by attendants. Pretty sure she's dead. Not happy with myself today.

I'm thinking that marking queens is just too risky and its better to let them alone. I had this debate with myself last year after doing something similar with another queen.

Fortunately there are plenty of eggs on multiple frames, so I'm hoping they make an emergency queen.

Re: Soaked the queen in paint

There is no such thing as a free education!
I think you learned your lesson. Practice on drones. Always make a few practice dots on something before you mark the queen. Mark your queens if you like, I do. Just practice some. It will probably work to your advantage since the main honey flow is on now and you will have all the nurse bees freed up to make honey. Don't beat yourself up over it.

Re: Soaked the queen in paint

Re: Soaked the queen in paint

Marking has it's benefits. Do you need any of them? If not then why mark? Easier to spot can be remidied by getting better at lookign for them. Maybe not as good of an answer but it does work to some degree. Ability to confirm queens have bee replaced. Knowing the age of the queen. I can count to two and I seldom think a queen get past that. O do think it woudl be helpful ln anticipating how the queen may perform though. if you are hoping for a real boon in brood but have a first year recently mated queen. you may be inspired to rethink your expectation not like expectation will alter the inevitable either way. But you may choose to not blow your entire allowance on that extractor just yet.

Other option. If you really need to mark queens. do it right and spring for those number discs. that way you not only track a queen you track that queen.

Re: Soaked the queen in paint

Originally Posted by flyingbrass

There is no such thing as a free education!
I think you learned your lesson. Practice on drones. Always make a few practice dots on something before you mark the queen. Mark your queens if you like, I do. Just practice some. It will probably work to your advantage since the main honey flow is on now and you will have all the nurse bees freed up to make honey. Don't beat yourself up over it.

I've learned many of my lessons the hard way.

This my third season so I've done it before. Last year I had a hive that seemed to replace the queen almost every time I marked her. I waited several weeks after I found her and made sure she was laying eggs. A few weeks later - no marked queen but there was another unmarked one. I did coat one a little heavy, but all of the other ones were just a simple dot right where it is supposed to be. Today it just gushed out - new marker and I was shaking it pretty good. I was dabbing on a wooden skid, but when I touched her it just ran.

Sometimes it seems the less interfering I do the better off the bees are. I appreciate the suggestion about practicing on drones. Not too worried about messing with them.

Re: Soaked the queen in paint

That must have been a terrible feeling but I'll bet the sight of the queen cells is just as exciting! I understand that the new queen will leave the hive to mate. Scared that the new queen might not return to the hive? I would be!

Re: Soaked the queen in paint

I always pump the pen on something else, wipe any blob off on something else (usually a lid or a piece of cardboard) then mark the queen. I've had a couple of queens like that that lived. They were very easy to spot. But I don't recommend it.